Tomorrow is the Big Day!

Well, after much praying and agonizing, James and I agreed with my doctor that we'll go in tomorrow and let them break my water. We're hoping and continuing to pray that everything will proceed naturally after that (or better yet, before). We go in at 7:30 in the morning, so we'd definitely appreciate your prayers. Specifically, we'll be praying as follows:

1) Above all, that baby is healthy and remains as such throughout the delivery process.
2) That I remain healthy throughout the process as well.
3) That I go into labor before we even go in tomorrow
4) That if I haven't gone into labor before tomorrow morning that the breaking of the water kicks me into a fast easy labor.
5) That we can avoid needing pitocin or a c-section.

Thanks so much, and we'll keep you posted on our new little girl!

A Baby-Less Birthday

Well, I won't be sharing my birthday with our second daughter. I think this is a good thing. I want for her to have her own birthday for her sake and not have to share with one of her parents. That said, now that I'm in the clear for today, she can come ANY TIME!!! HEAR THAT, BABY??

So, Mom and Dad took us to Red Lobster to eat tonight for my birthday. A young hostess sat us, and she and I had the following conversation. Thought my blog audience would get a kick out of it:

RLH (Red Lobster Hostess): When are you due?
Me: A week ago
RLH: (Astonished look...pause...and then): Have you had it yet?
Me: Umm, no. No, I haven't.
RLH: Wow, are you nervous?
Me: Nope, just ready (trying to hold it together)
RLH: Well, I guess if I look over here and you look stressed that I'll know why.
Me: Yep

Seriously - I'm the size of a house. HAVE I HAD IT YET? REALLY? I was crying I was laughing so hard.

Still Pregnant Version 2

Just wanted to confirm that I am still indeed pregnant. I'm feeling fine physically and trying not to get too frustrated emotionally. Some days are better than others! :)

We just got back from this week's doctor appointment. I'm 3cm dilated now, which is a good thing. He said he'll let me go pretty far into next week before he'll want to do a c-section. He also said that since I'm already dilated a bit, that he'd even try a mini-inducement before going straight for the c-section. He'd break my water and give me just a little pitocin to see if that kicked me into labor. So, I'm encouraged that I still have a decent chance of avoiding the c-section. Obviously, the hope and prayer is that I go into labor on my own before next week and that I can have her without a c-section. So, we'd certainly appreciate your prayers in that direction.

In the meantime, life has been pretty quiet around here while we wait our on newest addition. I did go to the mall with my friend Shelley and her daughter Brylie yesterday. Her mom and nephews joined us, so here's a pretty cute picture that her mom took:

Yep...STILL Pregnant

Just in case you're checking and wondering if we're in the hospital holding our newest little bundle, we're not! We had a busy weekend...lots of walking and activity and hanging with friends and yet there's still no little munchkin. I'm feeling well, but we're definitely ready when she is! We will definitely keep you posted, so stay tuned!

Still Pregnant....

There's no news yet, but we'll be sure and keep you posted! In the meantime, here's my last pre-hospital belly photos and our last pictures as a family of 3! Enjoy!

37 Week Ultrasound

Went very well. Baby is measuring at about 7 lbs. 2 oz. currently. That basically means that if she comes in the next two weeks (early or on time) that we'll probably stay under 8 lbs. That would be nice! Her head is measuring just slightly big but nothing major like Ellie's was. So, we're definitely on for trying to go natural again. Please be praying that we can!!

My maternity leave has officially begun! Not sure what I'm going to do with myself until this baby comes. Hopefully get some rest since that's not happening too well at night...

Here's a little 3D video of her. Both of her arms are up by her face. That's her left hand up top by her eye and her right arm is going across the bottom of the picture. Watch the right side of the screen - the 3D part.

Easter 2008

Hey, everyone! I know it's shocking for me to post again so soon, but we got some pretty cute photos and video of Ellie's Easter 2008 that I wanted to share.

In other news, many of you have heard that my grandfather (Dad's dad) passed away last week. I will definitely miss him, but he did live a good long life and we're grateful that he's whole again in heaven. The services will be this Tuesday afternoon, so please keep our family in your prayers.

We also moved my ultrasound to Thursday morning since it conflicted with the funeral time, so please keep that in your prayers as well that baby's head will be normal sized and all else will look good.

Enjoy the video and pictures! Video is a little over 2 minutes.

The baby swings were full, but does that phase our kid? No sir! Big girl swing suits her just fine!

And here she is going up the ladder in the bounce house. There were probably 15-20 kids ranging in ages from 2-10 in there with her, but she held her own!

After some work in figuring out that ladder, she made it to the top!

Our girl LOVES slides!

Pretty girl in her Easter dress

One Month to Go!

Hey, everyone. Just wanted to post a quick update. We got a cute video of Ellie saying her ABC's after us, so check that out below. It's a little under 3 minutes long. Baby is doing well. I had some pain and weird stuff going on early this week, but the doctor checked it out and everything is fine. I've been contracting a lot, so my body is already starting to get ready. I think she'll stay put for a few more weeks yet, though. We have a super busy but super fun weekend lined up. We have a birthday party and our Pinochle card game tonight. Then tomorrow, some sweet friends are throwing me a shower after church, we'll teach our FPU class at 4 and we have our LifeGroup at 6:30! Looking forward to all of it, though. UPDATE: I wrote that on Saturday and then had some issues loading the video below, so now it's Monday. Our day was long but went really well. The shower was lovely, and I'm super grateful to my friends for all their hard work. Check out how beautiful it was below!

Ellie is doing great. We did a bit of udpating to her room, and she seems to like her dots (check out the photos below). She's still really affectionate and generous with her kisses and loves to play at the park and watch Elmo. She still has Daddy's curls, so we've yet to cut her hair! Oh - and speaking of her hair, I must report that she spent the night with Cookie and Crouchburger again last weekend and had BEAUTIFUL hair now that they understand the process. :)

Lori pointed out that I haven't posted any sonogram pictures and not too many belly shots either. The sonogram picture thing is because we really haven't gotten any good pictures like we did with Ellie. We have another sono a week from Tuesday so we're hoping for some good pictures now since she should be plumping up pretty good by now. We shall see, though. In the meantime, you'll see my growin belly in the shower photos below. Here are a few new photos of Ellie as well.

She may not have a happy face, but doesn't she look cute??

We added the circles and the letters up top.

Don't you wish you knew what was under that pink blanket? Well, I'll tell you. It's new baby's name. That's what.

It looks a little lopsided since we had to partially disassemble it to get it home, but believe me - it was perfect the way Shelley did it. This was the "diaper cake" I got at my work shower. How cute is THAT?!

Our little cutie patootie at the park

Ellie going down the bounce slide at our friend Noah's birthday party

The beautiful table at my shower.

We're so blessed!

See?!

If You Want it Done Right....

you have to SHOW them how to do it. And don't leave anything out!

My parents have kept Ellie overnight twice so far. Both times it's been on a Saturday night so James and I can go out and then they just bring her to church on Sunday and we meet them there. The first time (in December) she was dressed cute, but her hair looked like she'd just rolled out of bed. I learned that my dad is the one that gets her ready, and he said that I hadn't sent anything to fix her hair - that was his excuse. (I did send her comb, and other than that you just need water, but evidently I wasn't clear!) So, this time, I sent the water bottle we use to wet her hair down, her comb, and even the Bedhead goop we use to keep her curls looking lovely. (We don't use it everyday, but I wanted them to have no excuse to fix her hair for church this time!) So, I told them that I'd packed all that stuff when I dropped her off on Saturday night. Well, she shows up at church and her hair looked like this:




And the pictures don't even do it justice. So, I asked them what happened. My dad comes up and says, "That goo was GROSS! I'm never touching that again!" They go on to explain, and it turns out that they tried to put the Bedhead in her hair whlie it was DRY! That, of course, just made her hair sticky and more tangled. Then mom thought she'd put the Bedhead stuff on the comb and try again. Oh my word..... And the thing is, you only need about a dime sized amount each time you use it - at the most. Heaven only knows how much they used, but let's just say that we could have not bathed her for a week and there would still be enough of the stuff in her hair when we wet it down to keep it curly. So, anyway, we got a big laugh out of that and told them they were supposed to wet her hair first. They were like 'Oh, so THAT'S what that water bottle was for!" Ummm...yes. Yes it was. Anyway, for contrast, here's what her hair looks like when I do it:

In other Wiebe news, all is humming along. The pregnancy continues to go well, and Ellie is tons of fun. Here's a video where she shows how much she loves the bath and some of her new words.

Ellie is growing up....

I'm sure that opening title is a shock to all of you. It may seem basic, but we reached a particularly interesting milestone just today. Read on...

First, I'll update regarding our holidays. Ellie did great at Christmas. She was really interested in opening all of her presents and really seemed to enjoy getting them. We didn't go crazy, but we did try to wrap a bunch separately, so she had a few things to open. Her gift from "Santa" (which she still has no concept of) was a Dora the Explorer tent with a tunnel. She crawled through it to get her milk on Christmas morning, which was really cute. We also gave her one of those magna doodle things, which she also loves. Also some big paper that goes on the floor for her to color on. She got some Praise Baby DVDs from Cookie and Crouchburger and some other clothes and books from Fritz and everyone else who loves her. She made out very well.

She continues to be a complete joy. She does cry, but rarely in public and not even that often at home really either. We're scared that this new baby won't be as angelic, but we know God made her just for us and we can't wait to meet her, too. Ellie is speaking up more and more lately. Here are a few of her words: yes, no, peek-a-boo, Cookie, Mama, Daddy, Elmo (more like Melmo), door, nose, mouth, up, out, off, please, etc. She does a lot of dancing, and she's getting really good at understanding us. I asked her to go get her shoes and socks from her room yesterday and she made one trip for her shoes and another to get her socks just like I asked. How nice is that?!

James continues to enjoy and do well with his counseling. He's gotten a bunch of new clients in recent weeks that are keeping him busy. He and I are also going to be going through a financial training class that will allow us to counsel people who are struggling with their finances. This is a passion for both of us, so we're excited about that opportunity. My work is also going well. I have a few more weeks and then things will slow down. I continue to feel well, too. The heartburn is around but nothing Tums can't handle. Otherwise, I really don't have any pregnancy compliants. We did all get that nasty cold over Christmas, so that was particularly fun for me when I can't take much for it... But we're all over it now and are grateful.

As for the new milestone I mentioned, we've decided to evict Ellie from her crib before the new baby is born, right? Well, we got a safety rail this weekend and were thinking we'd phase her into it with naps first and then overnight. I was thinking it would be a work in progress that would last a few weeks or so. Anyway, I decided to give it a try with her nap today. I just told her she was going to sleep in her big girl bed, did our cuddles and gave her her blanket and then left. She started crying, but she often cries for a minute or two when I put her in her crib, too. As usual, she quit crying in less than 5 minutes. She has her white noise machine that is reachable from her bed, and I heard it change sounds a time or two which means she was standing up messing with it, and then all was quiet. I waited a few minutes and then went in and she'd fallen asleep on the bed! I couldn't believe it. First time and almost no reisistance. She slept a full hour and a half which is about normal. Then the best part - I'd told her to stay in bed and call for us and not to get out until we came in. We did go in pretty fast when we heard her, but she stayed on the bed! I'm thinking I might as well give it a try for the overnight tonight as well since it was so easy today. I actually put her down while I was typing this and she's just in there talking to herself right now. I'll let you know how it went next time. I just can't believe how easy this kid does transition!

We had an ultrasound on Monday of the baby. We didn't get any great pictures, because she wasn't quite cooperating, but her head is measuring right on track which is great news. I'm really hoping to deliver her naturally, but much of that will depend on her head size. So far so good...

Here are a few photos from recent weeks:

About to crawl through the Dora tunnel/tent on Christmas morning

Elmo book from Cookie and Crouchburger

Opening her stocking

Ellie's first real Christmas dinner (mac & cheese continues to be the big hit)

Cute new outfit from Uncle Dave and Aunt Jen

"Why did you leave me in here when you're having fun out there?"

Pretty dress for the Christmas picture

With Crouchburger at the trains at Northpark

Pretty dress from Aunt Pen

Ellie with Aunt Pen and Uncle Bill

Messy girl wearing Daddy's socks

Our Baby (yes, I can still say that) sleeping her big girl bed for the first time